DuPont Manual senior Jessica Secor rewrote the KHSAA record books
By Dyuce Woodson
June 22, 2023 –When Jessica Secor first joined the cross-country and track and field teams at duPont Manual High School, those teams had been in a title drought. The cross-country team hadn’t won a state title since 2017 and the track and field team hadn’t won a state title since 1975.
The COVID-19 pandemic meant she couldn’t have a track season her freshman year. But in 2021, the Manual girls’ track and field team became a force, winning its first state title in 46 years and what would be the start of a three-year reign of dominance over the sport.
As Secor’s senior season with the track and field team wrapped up in early June, her resume proves she’s one of the best athletes Manual, or the Commonwealth of Kentucky, has ever seen. Not only has she won four team state championships, but she also broke three state records.
She owns the state record in the 1600 meters (a record she broke by 12 seconds), 800 meters and the mile. In one of her competitions, she ran the mile in 4:40:98, which is the fastest any woman in Kentucky, of any age, had ever run. Her sub 4:41 time also places her in the top 50 in the U.S. all-time.
Coming into the season though, she wasn’t even sure if running would be a possibility. She dealt with a hip injury at the start of the track season but that didn’t slow her down.
“Getting to run was so much fun and just getting to get another state title with the team was so much fun,” Secor said.
While her senior year is going down in history, she says she wasn’t expecting to have this great of a year.
“Maybe [coach Tim] Holman or [coach Josh] Hartlage (were thinking I might be this successful) but I was just, kind of, going along for the ride and, like, this is the last one,” Secor said. “Let’s make it fun and let’s just give everything we got.”
Tim Holman coaches the distance runners on the track team and he’s the head coach of the cross-country team. He’s coached Secor all of her high school years.
“It’s been delightful and she’s an incredibly coachable young woman and more than that, she’s just a good person,” Holman said. “I’ve enjoyed having her around and most importantly, she’s a really good teammate.”
Despite coming into the season with a “weird hip thing,” as Secor described it, Holman knew she was going to have a great year – broken records and all.
“I’ve always known that she was capable of being one of the top runners in the nation,” Holman said. “And she’s finally proven it.”
Next up for Secor, she’s going to be on the cross-country and track teams for the University of Tennessee. While she’s Knoxville bound, she will miss the people she spent the last four years within Louisville.
“It’s so much more fun when you get to do it with a group full of people,” Secor said. “Yeah, the individual accomplishments are great, but like, I don’t know. Just the team means more.”